These two rats fighting over a bagel in the subway are all of us when we see free food

If you’ve ever had to go to battle over the last crumb, you can probably relate to these rats fighting over a bagel in the subway in New York City. While we’d like to turn up our noses in disgust and pretend like we’re way too refined to be seen fighting in public over scraps, don’t forget that there was an actual scientific study that examines why people completely lose it over free food. (We’re looking at you, greedy co-workers.)

So, let’s try to understand these rodents instead of judging them. Bagel Rat of NYC would probably be extremely proud of them! We don’t know much about these particular creepy city dwellers, but we suspect they really don’t need the snark — they need a bagel, and this video of the bread battle of 2017 shows exactly how serious rats are about getting the last bite.

And who can blame them? Everyone knows bagels are the bomb, y’all. Like, if we had to choose between sleep and bagels, we’d be in a world of trouble.

In the clip shared by Instagram user Anthony Dorsey, the two rival rodents can be seen on either side of a train track, engaged in a ferocious tug-of-war over a half of a bagel. The stakes are obviously high, because a life without bagels doesn’t sound like a very happy one.

Wow. Somewhere in this subway rat battle is a lesson about persistence and appreciating the things you’ve worked for, but we can’t really find the words to properly express that because all we can think of at the moment is the fact that we really want a bagel.